The Ghost of the Old Man of the Mountain ?

"……but up in the Mountains of New Hampshire, God Almighty has hung out a sign to show that there He makes men." With these words Daniel Webster made the granite rock face famous.
According to the New Hampshire State Parks department The Old Man of the Mountain, nicknamed the Great Stone Face or Profile, was located in Franconia Notch State Park. The Old Man of the Mountain was scenically set 1,200' above Profile Lake. Discovered in 1805, the rocks that made up the profile collapsed on May 3, 2003.
Within days of the face falling talk of re-building began .A legacy fund was established in 2007 to raise money and oversee the construction and installation of a memorial to the Old Man of the Mountain.
I remember as a child over forty years ago, with some disappointment seeing the Great Stone Face for the first time and being puzzled by others awe of it .A rock climber I knew scaled the Great Face before the fall in the late 1990’s and mentioned that it was anchored to the rock face by a webbed mass of old and rusting cables.
A Political force field? My suspicion for years has been that the Great Face locked New Hampshire into some strange 1950’s Republican time warp. Somehow it exerted a powerful conservative force field over New Hampshire. Then by way of the all but trademarked First-in-the-Nation-Presidential-Primary it extended this force across the entire U S. Primary candidates had to cope with the strangely conservative nature of New Hampshire under the Great Face.Political change has come since the fall the New Hampshire state legislature now has a Democratic majority and their Democratic governor is in his second term along with a newly elected Democratic US Senator.
Recent developments cause one to consider what strange new political force might be unleashed on the Granite State .Metaphysical talk of the ghost of the old man and a glass prosthesis face cause justifiably a certain unease . Architect Francis Treves of New Jersey has won a New Hampshire chapter of Architects Institute of America’s annual award for an un-built project competition with a proposal for 45 foot glass replica of the Old Man. His proposal would allow visitors inside the structure and make it a tourist attraction of the magnitude of the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

Architecture this Week explains further: This “Ghost of the Old Man” replacement is an attempt to solve a complex physical and spiritual problem. The nexus between conception and transcendence was conceived as a dense block of ice returning to its glacial origins. At the same time, a vacant glass volume allows it to dematerialize in sunlight. This project evolved as a “Glass Prosthesis” representing a moment in time where afterlife and birth co-exist.

I believe fears of newly awakened powers for the Old Man can be put to rest with the knowledge of New Hampshire’s tax averse nature. News reports note, the (NH) state House killed two bills that would have created monuments to the Old Man, mostly because of the hefty price tags.

Glass Old Man of the Mountain

Bad apples or worse at Bush White House

At the Bush White House the fish rotted from the head down, but what about those just following orders ?
New revelations make it clearer that orders making “harsh” treatment the standard operating procedure came from the fishes head.
Specialist Charles Graner ,Specialist Lynndie England and other low level individuals who faced prosecution were Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick, Specialist Charles Graner, Sergeant Javal Davis, Specialist Megan Ambuhl, Specialist Sabrina Harman, and Private Jeremy Sivits.

Senate report vindicates soldiers prosecuted over Abu Ghraib abuses, says lawyer

• Lawyer for Charles Graner to seek presidential pardon
A newly unclassified Senate report on the US government's treatment of terrorism suspects vindicates enlisted soldiers prosecuted for the abuse of inmates Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, a lawyer for one of the soldiers and a US senator said today.

Texas-based lawyer Guy Womack, who defended specialist Charles Graner, said he plans to seek a presidential pardon for his client. Graner was in 2005 sentenced to 10 years in a military prison on charges of conspiracy, dereliction of duty, maltreatment of detainees and other counts.

Also posted at Green Mountain Daily

Ernie Pyle ,National Newspaper Columnists Day

Today is National Newspaper Columnists Day declared so by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists .April 18th was chosen because it is the day in 1945 when famed World War Two columnist/journalist Ernie Pyle was killed by gunfire while riding in jeep on the island of Okinawa.
Pyle was known to admire the infantry man and referred to them as "the guys that wars can't be won without." After Pyle urged in a column in 1944 that soldiers should get “fight pay” just as airmen got “flight pay” the US Congress passed what came to be known as the Ernie Pyle bill authorizing $10.00 more per month for combat infantrymen.
OpEdNews on line’s Bob Patterson writes each year of National Colunmists Day to keep Pyle’s memory alive, relevant and not just a footnote.

One way to combat the deterioration of journalism in the United States is to promote the work of the greats and to encourage people to make the effort to learn about them, and read their work. This year we will also urge our regular readers to perhaps look up online some of the columnists honing their skills in various college newspapers.

How many national or local papers made note of this observance today? What platform or combination of them might a future Ernie Pyle be found using? What about the Washington Post’s columnist George Will and his recent climate change nonsense ? Given the current state of agony in the newspaper world and doubt about the future a little introspection may not be wasted.
Observing the current readiness of newspaper publishers to blame the internet for all their troubles former journalist/editor turned blogger Alan Mutter writes …....

......As Google and many other savvy online publishers learned how to capitalize on the openness and interactivity of the Internet, newspaper publishers stubbornly spent the last 1½ decades trying to sustain their once-enviable print business model in the face of overwhelming evidence that everything was changing: technology, consumer patterns and advertiser behavior.

Vermont Governor Jim Douglas is in the Tub!

Sorry for this overworked quote but here it fits.” My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." Grover Norquist
Governor Jim Douglas has now targeted positions for elimination which cost the state no money. Its part of a "merger and consolidation" plan of some kind. The Public Safety Commissioner claims the latest elimination of nuclear safety personnel will not harm public safety but provides no prove other than his assurance of trust me .With Entergy's aging Vermont Yankee plant sitting in the Southern part of state leaking and rusting this seems the height of foolishness. No explanation is offered about how a no-cost-to-the-state job's elimination will save the state money. The positions are funded by the owners of Vermont Yankee .Once again a zig a zag an artful smoke and mirrors flourish followed by the elimination of some state jobs and a favor to Entergy in the mix. Douglas is in the tub.

Gov. James Douglas says the layoffs are needed to save $17 million in General Fund expenses. However, the radiological-preparedness position held by Jaclyn Harman – one of two state workers identified for potential elimination at the Department of Public Safety's 21-person Vermont Emergency Management division – is paid for entirely from a special reserve funded by the owners of the nuclear plant.
Public Safety Commissioner Thomas Tremblay confirmed that no General Fund dollars are used for Harman's job. However, he said the elimination of Harman's position would be part of a larger "merger and consolidation" plan that might save General Fund money.

Times-Argus
cross posted at Green Mountain Daily

Noir Friday

Maltese Falcon 1941
Here Ward Bond as Det. Polehouse ,Barton McLane as Lt. Dundy and Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade exchange some fedora intensive noir dialogue from John Huston’s Maltese Falcon .This was the second movie version of the Dashiell Hammett novel.
An earlier version was made ten years before in 1931 and is now available under the title The Maltese Falcon / Satan Met a Lady

Det. Tom Polehouse :What time did you get home?

Sam Spade :A few minutes ago. I was walkin' and thinkin' things over.

Det. Tom Polehouse :We know. We tried to call you.
Lt. Dundy :Where'd you walk?

Sam Spade - Bush Street.

Lt. Dundy: Did you see anybody...

Sam Spade: No....No witnesses.Well, I know where I stand now.
Sorry I got up on my hind legs, but you tryin' to rope me made me nervous.
Miles gettin' killed upset me, then you birds crackin' foxy.
It's all right now that I know what it's all about

Det.Polehouse: Forget it, Sam.

Sam Spade: Thursby die?

Det. Polehouse: Yep.

Sam Spade : How'd I kill him? I forget.

'You birds crackin' foxy'...they don't write stuff like that anymore and we are poorer for it .

Worries great and small of an investment giant

Too big too fail, but not too small to notice a little blog. Investment giant Goldman Sachs has filed a cease and desist order against a website gripe blog for using the Goldman Sachs name on its site. Goldman Sachs which received billions in troubled asset bailout money months ago now claims it may be in a position to return the funds if the conditions are right. They also received money through the AIG bailout program.Intellectual property rights also must figure high in their proities.

The bank has instructed a Wall Street law firm to pursue blogger Mike Morgan, warning him in a recent cease-and-desist letter that he may face legal action if he does not close down his website.
Florida-based Mr. Morgan began a blog entitled "Facts about Goldman Sachs" – the web address for which is http://www.goldmansachs666.com/– just a few weeks ago. According to the complaint, dated April 8, the bank is rattled because the site "violates several of Goldman Sachs' intellectual property rights" and also "implies a relationship" with the bank itself.

Check out the website to judge for yourself if it could be confused with a Goldman Sachs endeavor. Here from the blog itself … I have started the website to reveal the extent of Goldman Sachs’ part in the current financial crisis gripping the world.

"We always act to protect our firm," a Goldman spokesperson said in a statement sent to The Am Law Daily later in the day Tuesday. "This is not about Mr. Morgan's rights to express his views; it is about his infringement on our trademark.”

www.telegraph.com
www.amlawdaily.com

Salmonella and peanut oversight

96% of people, when making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, put the peanut butter on before the jelly and April 2nd was National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day .Other more serious peanut news graphically highlights the FDA’s oversight capability and by extension may cause concern over other public safety oversight capabilities of the government. A recall of peanuts was only made after the Center for Disease Control detected clusters of salmonella poisoning’s common element, peanuts. Nine people died, 1,400 were made ill from bad peanuts and even with this news front and center for weeks nothing moves forward easily. I have been known to exist for weeks at time on a diet of peanut butter and saltines so this is understandably troubling.

"The reality of the basic system at FDA is that there is no requirement for companies to have in place modern preventive controls," said Mike Taylor, a professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services and a former FDA official. The recent voluntary recall of pistachios was initiated (ironically on National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day) after a private “auditor” hired by the processor discovered the tainted nuts.

Neither the Food nor Drug Administration nor state laws require food manufacturers to test the safety of their products.
In January 2009 Sen.LeahyVt. (D) and Rep.Rosa DeLauroCt.(D) called for criminal investigations of Peanut Corporation of America.

“We believe it is critical to determine whether the actions and omissions of this company rose to the level of criminal conduct.”

Yet ……

Despite four outbreaks of salmonella illness from peanut products in the past three years, the federal government has not changed the safety measures required of peanut companies or instructed its inspectors to test for the bacteria. In all, the outbreaks have killed nine people and sickened more than 1,400.
During its investigation of the Peanut Corporation case, the FDA discovered about 20 additional facilities that have been making peanut products without the knowledge of federal regulators. It learned about the facilities because they were buying peanuts from PCA, said Michael Herndon, an FDA spokesman. The agency will not name the 20 facilities or say where they are located, he said, adding that FDA inspectors are planning to visit each site shortly.

Senator Leahy
www.washingtonpost.com

International Paper's money helper

International Paper is adding diesel fuel to an existing alternative fuel developed in the 1930’s.Using diesel it would not otherwise have used as an additive IP is reaping millions in tax credits.
A change in tax laws under the Bush transportation bill in 2005 allows for tax credits for alternative fuels .One feature is a 50 cent a gallon tax credit for using fuel mixtures. This is blending of taxable fuels and alternative fuels (like hamburger helper for traditional fuels,See:EU moves to curb ‘splash and dash’ biofuel scam) to encourage new development of alternative fuels .International Paper and another paper company,Verso are receiving this large tax credit for adding diesel to a processed fuel source(black liquor)that has been employed for years ,since the 1930’s in fact. The process is described as “a neat, efficient process that's cost-effective without any government subsidy.” For a one month period IP received $71.6 million and it is said that it could be a billion dollars in cash per year .IP stock rose 12% on this news.
IP is gaining so much money from this credit and fears that the loop hole will be closed that they have been running full tilt anticipating the credit may be closed off to them. In fact, the money to be gained from exploiting the tax credit so dwarfs the money to be made in making paper--IP lost $452 million in the fourth quarter of 2008 alone--that the ultimate result of the credit will likely be to push paper prices down as mills churn at full capacity in order to grab as much money from the IRS as it can.
Gaming the system the resulting overproduction,and recession has consequences:
TICONDEROGA,New York — International Paper's Ticonderoga mill is closing for two weeks in May due to a lack of orders. The shutdown will affect most of the mill's 600 employees, mill Manager of Communications Donna Wadsworth said Thursday.
She said workers will be given options on how they want to take the time off, including using vacation time or unpaid leave.
Mill Manager Chris Mallon said he knows the shutdown will cause anxiety.
The author of the tax credit article makes a very timely and worrisome point ……….

Christopher Hayes at The Nation Whether or not Congress gets around to turning off the spigot, the episode is a useful reminder of the persistently ingenious ways the private sector can exploit even well-intentioned legislation. Considering that the success of the Treasury's recently announced plan to rescue the financial sector depends, in part, on the private sector not gaming the rules, the black liquor story seems particularly germane.

The Process:
Since the 1930s the overwhelming majority of paper mills have employed what's called the kraft process to produce paper. Here's how it works. Wood chips are cooked in a chemical solution to separate the cellulose fibers, which are used to make paper, from the other organic material in wood. The remaining liquid, a sludge containing lignin (the structural glue that binds plant cells together), is called black liquor. Because it's so rich in carbon, black liquor is a good fuel; the kraft process uses the black liquor to produce the heat and energy necessary to transform pulp into paper. It's a neat, efficient process that's cost-effective without any government subsidy.
It's unclear who first came up with the idea—Ann Wrobleski, IP's vice president for global government relations.told me it was "outside consultants"--but at some point last fall IP and Verso, another paper company, formerly a part of IP, began adding diesel to its black liquor and applied to the IRS for the credit. (Verso nabbed $29.7 million at just one of its mills in the final quarter of 2008 for its use of mixed fuel.)
Despite the obvious contrivance of the procedure, Wrobleski is unapologetic: "The credit is supposed to encourage the use of green fuel." Sure, I said, but isn't it a bit weird you're now adding diesel fuel to the process in order to take advantage of it? "It is what it is," she said.

Pssst buddy ‘How much you want for that toxic asset? UPDATE below

At a recent White House meeting the CEOs of the most powerful financial institutions in the world offered several explanations for paying high salaries to their employees — and, by extension, to themselves.” These are complicated companies,” one CEO said. Offered another: “We’re competing for talent on an international market.”
But President Barack Obama wasn’t in a mood to hear them out. He stopped the conversation and offered a blunt reminder of the public’s reaction to such explanations. “Be careful how you make those statements, gentlemen. The public isn’t buying that.”
“My administration,” the president added, “is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”

Why does this wonderful exchange with Obama get leaked on a day when a curious new rule change is announced by the The Financial Accounting Standards Board? Banks are required to value their assets in a certain manner .The Board now will allow companies more leeway in valuing assets and reporting losses. They can estimate the value based on cash flows on their balance sheets rather than using the value the asset would receive if sold immediately. One analyst said the decision "allows financial institutions to use fictional valuations on many of their toxic assets" and further obscures their true position
I make no claim here to any great insight into the banking business but this flexibility in valuing toxic assets on paper rather than on the value an asset would receive if sold , sounds like more of the same bad banking craziness that got us where we are today. Who knows?

The changes should help boost battered banks' balance sheets and financial stocks rallied on Wall Street, but the rules may undercut a new financial rescue program.
In the short run, banks would benefit by raising the value of the assets. But higher values could drive away prospective private investors - who don't like to overpay, even though the government will absorb most of the risk. They can estimate the value based on cash flows on their balance sheets rather than using the value the asset would receive if sold immediately.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board issued new guidelines under the mark-to-market accounting rules, which require companies to value assets at prices reflecting current market conditions. The changes, which apply to the second quarter that began this month, will allow the assets to be valued at what the banks project they might sell for in the future, rather than in the current, distressed environment.

UK.rueters
www.efgate.com
UPDATE :Bailed-out banks eye toxic asset buys
FT.com

US banks that have received government aid, including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase, are considering buying toxic assets to be sold by rivals under the Treasury’s $1,000bn (£680bn) plan to revive the financial system.
The plans proved controversial, with critics charging that the government’s public-private partnership - which provide generous loans to investors - are intended to help banks sell, rather than acquire, troubled securities and loans.
But public opinion may not tolerate the idea of banks selling each other their bad assets. Critics say that would leave the same amount of toxic assets in the system as before, but with the government now liable for most of the losses through its provision of non-recourse loans.

That’s it I am not reading anything more about the banking industry. It’s almost as if the same people that caused the banking world to crater are still in charge …well I guess they are .